Lawsuits against VW widen

Some Volkswagen owners in South Korea filed a class action lawsuit against Volkswagen on Wednesday morning, claiming they were defrauded when purchasing their cars from the German carmaker.

Lawyer Ha Jong-Sun from Seoul-based Barun Law said he'd received "at least 100 calls from owners" and expected to add more plaintiffs from next week.

"Our clients would never have bought the cars if they had been fully aware of the real emissions controls," he said in a statement.

Lawsuits have also been filed in the US, while Volkswagen is facing investigations in a number of countries over falsified diesel-engine pollution tests.

Recalls ahead

German prosecutors launched a preliminary investigation into VW subsidiary Audi related to the scandal over rigged emissions test results to see whether formal proceedings needed to be initiated against the Ingolstadt-based company.

VW supervisory board member and economy minister of the German state of Lower Saxony, Olaf Lies, told the BBC on Wednesday that some executives "had acted criminally." He said millions of people had now lost their faith in VW.

A core group of VW's supervisory board members representing large shareholders and unions are scheduled to meet later today for yet another crisis meeting on how to contain the damage done.

The carmaker's new CEO, Matthias Müller, had said the company faced a major test as it set about making sweeping changes to VW's corporate culture.

Volkswagen said it was beginning to contact customers affected by the scandal on the steps it would take to correct the in-built emissions cheating software. The firm suggested a software revision would probably be accompanied by "slight interventions" on engines.

hg/nz (AFP, dpa, AP)